1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic newspaper, and other electronic media publications, and in particular, to an electronic newspaper that is portable, lightweight and battery operated, having a full color display screen, passive stylus for writing and selecting icons for menus, speech and sound reproduction and the ability to store massive amounts of data.
2. Description of the Related Art
The current thinking of major publishing companies is to focus on creating an on-line edition for the world wide web. While the world wide web has been certainly gaining in popularity, the internet as it stands is too intricate for the average user to negotiate easily. The internet is especially frustrating to novist users trying to find articles or other information. It is estimated that there will be approximately ten million home pages by the end of 1996, thus increasing the difficulty of finding anything on the world wide web. It is evident by the fact that very few, if any, newspapers have been able to get sufficient loyal readers of electronic editions to charge access for them, i.e., the electronic editions are generally non-revenue generating items. The World Wide Web is a dangerous place for the newspaper to be. The moment that their issue is posted on their websight, they lose control over the entire content of their publication. The new data mining technologies and the companies offering them, (The Net Box, Pointcast, AT&T, AirMedia, even MSN, Netscape and others), are designed to sift out only certain information and have the ability to present it to the reader in any format, or context that the service provider may wish.
Another major drawback of the world wide web is that it utilizes modems and phone lines. At present, the current capacity for a top of the line modem is over 32 KB. Using compression techniques, this rate can be increased to over 64 KB. However, even at this rate, it takes approximately one hour to download a four megabyte file (approximately 8 pages of text combined with full color graphics).
In fact, slow transmission rates make it very difficult to send in-depth graphic files on the internet. It is virtually impossible to receive them in a timely manner, and most people are not willing to wait for them to download. There thus remain very severe limitations pertaining to the world wide web.
One alternate technology is the integrated services digital network (ISDN). ISDN provides 128 KB (256 KB with compression), but is too expensive for most home users. The receiving end must also be an ISDN terminal, otherwise the increase in transmission speed is lost by virtue of the constriction of the server on the other end.
T1 and T3 lines are available to large corporate users and can transmit bandwidths of 1.44 mbps-3.44 mbps, but such lines are generally much too expensive for residential subscribers.
A new yet unproven technology is the so-called asymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL). However, this technology is effectively still in the "drawing board" stage, and is not yet been put to widespread commercial use.
The published UK Patent Application No. GB2286751A, dated Aug. 23, 1995, describes a newspaper broadcasting system using significant satellite uplinks and downlinks. The system is designed for each home user to have a separate satellite receiving station. A national newspaper edit broadcast system is sent by satellite to regional branch offices, where the newspaper data and local news are combined and edited and encrypted, and then sent to each of the home terminals and to news dealers. The primary emphasis of the system is on news dealers. The news dealers would then print out a copy for customers to buy which would defeat a primary purpose of having an electronic version of the newspaper in the first place. Another drawback of the system is its insufficiency. Further, the editorial integrity of each local newspaper is sacrificed into a national newspaper publishing office.
The published PCT International Application No. W093-3 15466, dated Aug. 5, 1993, is directed to distribution of electronic media and subsequent distribution to consumers having a portable screen memory display unit via a cable TV network. One drawback of this system is that there is no real manageable way to deal with the sheer magnitude of 300,000 megabytes of data transmission on a daily basis, from all over the world, managing that information, and making it available to 1200 plus cable TV systems in the United States. While there is a major reference to satellite uplinks and dissemination, there is no clear description of the exact system for handling the sheer magnitude of data. Another drawback is that the local newspaper would relinquish editorial control to a national news-room facility, where each publication would be combined into a national publication. This would then be digitally formatted by software provided by the vendor, national advertising would be added, and then sent by satellite uplink to a regional distribution center. Local advertising would then be included, and downlinked by microwave to regionally close cable TV providers. The more distant cable TV providers would receive information by satellite downlink. Line amplifiers would stabilize the levels and raise them to a level that would be disseminated out to a typical coaxial cable network. However, most if not all newspapers in the United States would be most reluctant to relinquish editorial control of their newspapers for any reason. Another drawback resides in the failure to take into account the sheer size of the newspaper file downloaded with all text, graphics and attached audio and video clips. Such would not fit into the dynamic RAM memory of a portable user interface. This is true of one publication, much less multiple publications at the same time. There must be a storage device within the portable unit itself to store the information that is accessible to the user. It should also be noted that in the event of power failure or inadvertent turning off of the system, the data stored into the dynamic RAM memory would be lost. It should also be noted that the software program of the system is very complex, and most users would find it too involved to use, particularly users not accustomed to dealing with high technology equipment. Another drawback resides in the fact that the user interacting with the device must, in order to be able to input data, place the portable display unit into a base unit and be attached by physical link to a keyboard, which can only take place in an office or home location.